Spokeswoman sues company after it uses AI to make new ads featuring her

Amber George, longtime spokeswoman of a store chain, saw an advertisement featuring her that she did not remember recording. If there was a moment of confusion, it was soon obvious what Fred's Appliance had done: run old ads through AI to generate new ones featuring her.

She complained, and they offered an "addendum to her contract that would allow them to use artificial intelligence." Her answer was to give her notice and file a lawsuit; she is suing them, reports Thomas Clouse at the Spokesman-Review.

"Defendants have engaged in unlawful commercial exploitation of Ms. George's exclusive property rights involving her past work by: including it in new or materially altered advertisements, using it across different media, using still images to form video footage, using behind-the-scenes content to promote the business … all without her authorization or compensation to her," Dunn wrote.

Fred's Appliance and its production company, Victory Media, admit AI was used to replicate her voice, but insists the video composition used in the new advertising did not: "We strongly disagree with allegations suggesting that our former spokesperson was digitally recreated or visually manipulated through AI."

"Victory Media has always operated with integrity and has sought to do the right thing for its clients, partners, and the people we work with," the statement from Lam reads. "We acknowledge that we used AI-assisted voice editing to make a limited number of updates to existing advertisements, primarily involving pricing and promotional changes. "We believed those uses were authorized under our spokesperson agreement and were consistent with our contractual rights," the statement continued. "When questions were raised regarding those edits, we did not attempt to hide them. We proactively disclosed the AI-assisted voice edits, provided a list of the known instances, and immediately entered into discussions with our former spokesperson."

There's a line in the statement, "Victory Media has always operated with integrity and has sought to do the right thing for its clients, partners, and the people we work with," which really doesn't align with nonconsensual AI voice replication in the first place.

Longtime spokeswoman sues Fred's Appliance over use of AI likeness [The Spokesman-Review]